Quaintance Family History

William Quaintance Jr. (1785 - 1867)

The Quaintances were the starting point for my genealogical research,
mainly because of the excellent work done in the 1960s by Mr. Albert
Quaintance of Colorado. The entire Quaintance line in North America can be traced
back to a William QUAINTANCE,
born in about 1716, who probably came to these shores in the mid-1700's.
Three of his sons went in different directions during the early
expansion of the United States and founded the three main branches
of the family. Our line is of the Virginia-Kentucky branch.

The Virginia-Kentucky line was founded by the William
QUAINTANCE who was born in 1747 and later moved to Rappahannock
Co., Virginia. William had two sons, William
QUAINTANCE Jr. and John
QUAINTANCE , who went with him in about 1800 when the family
moved to Fleming Co., Kentucky. However, John later returned to
Virginia to marry a woman that he knew there and founded the Virginia
line of the family that continues down to this day.

William Jr. remained in Kentucky except for a time in 1814 when
he was with a company of volunteers stationed in northern Ohio during
the War of 1812. On returning, he married Sabra
SOUTHARD and had about eight children with her until her
death in 1833 during a cholera epidemic. Only two or three of his
children survived into adulthood, which was not uncommon in those
days. William Southard QUAINTANCE
was his only surviving son.

Grace Quaintance (1852 - 1932)

William Southard married Martha
DARNALL, daughter of local businessman Thomas
DARNALL, and later received the Darnall house and property
west of Flemingsburg. This became the family abode for about the
next 50 years, as it was larger and better situated than the old
Quaintance farm. Their daughter, Grace
Quaintance, married Lewis
Dixon GORDON in 1877. Lewis and Grace moved into the Quaintance
house and took over the farm as William moved into retirement. This
arrangement continued until about 1901. At that time, the land and
house were sold and William and Martha moved to Maysville, while
Lewis and Grace moved to Cincinnati with their children.

Quaintance house near Flemingsburg

The Quaintances are notable for their advanced ages in a time when
life was often curtailed by disease and accidents. William Quaintance
Sr. lived to the age of 85, with his wife, Grace
GLASSCOCK, living to 94, and his mother to 95. William Jr.
died at age 82, and William Southard at 84. The last remaining person
in the Kentucky line with the Quaintance name died in 1985.